Pictures: Nine Fish With "Hands" Found to Be New Species

New, Pink, and Rare

Photograph courtesy Karen Gowlett-Holmes

Using its fins to walk, rather than swim, along the ocean floor in an undated picture, the pink handfish is one of nine newly named species described in a recent scientific review of the handfish family.

Only four specimens of the elusive four-inch (ten-centimeter) pink handfish have ever been found, and all of those were collected from areas around the city of Hobart (map), on the Australian island of Tasmania.

Though no one has spotted a living pink handfish since 1999, it's taken till now for scientists to formally identify it as a unique species.

See Spot Walk

Photograph courtesy CSIRO

The previously known spotted handfish, seen above in a file photo, is found on sandy sediments at the bottom of Tasmania's Derwent Estuary and adjoining bays. The fish use their fins to walk along the seabed, where they eat small invertebrates such as worms and crustaceans.

Perhaps the best studied species of the handfish family, the spotted handfish is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature—meaning it's "facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future."

Seeing Red

Not much is known about handfish, because their populations are low and they are not often seen in the wild. But researchers suggest handfish lay fewer eggs than most other fish species, which means their long-term survival is a concern.

Handfish also tend to stay very close to home, so they don't adapt well to new places, said fish taxonomist Gledhill.

Published May 24, 2010

Also Available in Purple

Photograph courtesy Andrew Maver

Newly described as its own species, the Ziebell's handfish typically has yellow fins, as seen above in a file photo, but the species can also appear with a mottled purplish coloration. Ziebell's handfish is found only in small, isolated populations off Tasmania and is listed as vulnerable in Australia.

Today all handfish are found only around southeastern Australia. But about 50 million years ago the animals likely inhabited regions around the world, the CSIRO scientists note. Fossils of the curious creatures have been discovered in the Mediterranean, for example.